A Day in the life of a Caravan merchant
Walking through Fes, one wonders at the hundreds or shops, boutiques and one-man stalls that crowd the city's tiny alleys. Overcharged mules transport endless goods up and down the cobblestoned hills, with little or no regard for clueless wanderers like ourselves.

In Leo's days, Fes was no different. It was then the main center of industry, crafts and business in the Maghreb, and had been so since the XIIth century. Reading his methodic description of the city's many crafts (from book sellers and leather dyers, to copper melters and fruit merchants- extending in co-centric circles from the Quaraouine mosque) one is not surprised to learn that at its height, Fes regrouped some 150 different professions. Travelers and traders of all places stopped here either on their way to or back from the Sahara.

Let's follow a typical traveler, as he enters the medina through one of its great doors, in search of a place to rest his tired body, and stock up on goods for the road.
Approaching the city on horseback (dromedaries would only be rented once he reached the Southern tips of Morocco), our traveler would have been one of many amongst a convoy of merchants and pilgrims coming from one of the rich coastal communities.
         

                      Bab Boujeloud- the Boujeloud "door"

Loaded with European goods (textiles and beads), these merchants would be eager to exchange them for Fassi leather and books, which garnered high prices in the Sudan. They probably conducted these trades from within a fondouk, or caravanserail: a hotel of sorts, for traveling mechants.